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Basic Sentence Patterns: Subject Complement Predicate Adjective
Basic Sentence Patterns: Subject Complement Predicate Adjective
LET Competencies:
Below are basic patterns around which most English sentences are built.
1. N be Adj
where the adjective is a SUBJECT COMPLEMENT, in particular a PREDICATE
ADJECTIVE. The adjective refers back to the subject. The copula verbbe
means “may be described as.”
2. N be UW (= uninflected word)
where the uninflected word is an ADVERBIAL such as here, there, up, down, in,
out, inside, upstairs, downstairs, on, off, now, then, yesterday, and
tomorrow. Be has the meaning of “be located” or “occur.”
3. N1 be N1
where the superscript means that the two nouns have the same referent.
The second noun following the be verb is also a SUBJECT COMPLEMENT, in
particular a PREDICATE NOUN or PREDICATE NOMINATIVE.
Glasses break.
5. N1 TrV (= transitive V) N2
where N2 does not have the same referent as N1. N2 is called the
DIRECT OBJECT of the verb, “the receiver of the action.”
6. N1 TrV N2 N3
where the superscripts 1, 2, and 3 indicate that each noun has a
different referent.
Two noun objects occur after the verb. Still N2 is the direct object and N3 is the INDIRECT
OBJECT. If we omit the last noun, the pattern is identical to that in item 5. Note that the
indirect object is preceded by the preposition to (sometimes for or of). If the two objects are
inverted, the preposition disappears.
7. }N2
}Pronoun }Adj
There are choices of different forms in sentence final position. These are illustrated
as follows:
The most common illustration of this sentence pattern is one with the occurrence of
a final N2.
NOUNS
2. They have two INFLECTIONS, the PLURAL{-es} and the POSSESSIVE (sometimes
called the GENITIVE) {-‘s}. Both inflections have various ALLOMORPHS
/əәz/ appears after morphs ending in sibilants or affricates / s, z, š, ž, č ǰ /
/s/ appears after morphs ending in voiceless consonants / p, t, k, f, Ɵ /,
except the sibilants and affricate / s, š, č /
/z/ appears after morphs ending in vowels and voiced consonants / b, d, g, v, ð,
m, n, ŋ, l, r. y, w /, except the sibilants and the affricate / z, ž, ǰ /
• added to adjectives
{-ity} facility
{-ness} happiness
7. Nouns can serve as HEADS in a noun phrase. As heads they may be preceded by
one or more single-word modifiers and followed by a phrasal or clausal modifier
or both
Functions of Nouns
Noun Types
3. COLLECTIVE NOUNS are able to take either singular or plural verbs forms, depending
on the interpretation given to the noun, i.e., whether it is seen as a unit or as a
collection of individuals
The teamhaswon all its games.
The teamhave won awards in their respective events.
ARTICLES
ARTICLES area subclass of DETERMINERS, which are noun-marking words. They usually
come before the nouns they modify.
PRONOUNS
Most pronouns stand for, refer to, or replaces a noun or a noun phrase within a
text; hence, they occupy the same position as a noun or noun phrase does. The
word or words that a pronoun stands for are its ANTECEDENT or REFERENCE.
My brother holds dual citizenship. He is not only a Filipino but also a
Canadian citizen.
Pronouns can also be a direct reference to an outside situation (e.g., “What is that?”
in response to a sound or noise).
Kinds of Pronouns
There are many different kinds of pronouns: SUBJECT, OBJECT, POSSESSIVE, REFLEXIVE,
DEMONSTRATIVE and others. The forms within each category are distinguished by number
(singular/plural), person (first/second/third) gender (masculine/feminine/neuter), and in the
case of demonstratives, by number and proximity.
Things to Remember:
1. Animals closely related to people can be referred to by he, him, and his or
she, her, and hers.
2. Use it and its to refer to inanimate objects except ships, which are
always referred as she.
4. Traditionally, the pronouns he, him, and his have been used for mixed groups or
groups in which the sex is unknown. Many people now object to this use, so they use both the
masculine and feminine forms or the plural forms to avoid the
problem. (awkward)
Everybody submitted his or her assignment.
All the students submitted their assignments. (acceptable)
Reflexive Pronouns
1. Use the reflexive pronoun as the object of the verb form or preposition to refer
to the subject of the sentence.
Intensive Pronouns
The intensive form occurs directly after the word it modifies or at the end of the clause.
Reciprocal Pronouns
1. The reciprocal pronoun forms are each other and one another. They mean
that each part of the subject did the action and also received the action.
3. Some prefer to use each other for two people or things and one another for
more than two.
The two finalists congratulated each other for making it to the top.
The class members prepared surprise gifts for one another during the
Christmas party.
Demonstrative Pronouns
Indefinite Pronouns
Use singular verbs with compound pronouns and use singular pronouns to refer to
them in formal writing.
Interrogative Pronouns
Relative Pronouns
2. Relative pronouns used in adjective clauses are who, whom, whose, which
and that.
3. Who, whom, and whose are used for persons while which is used for
non-persons.
The guestwho came to dinner is the
governor. The bookwhich I bought is a best
seller.
6. That, which and whom are the only relative pronouns that can be left out.
The instrumental music (that) I like to hear often is that of Zamfir.
The house pests (which) I hate to see are the rodents and the cockroach.
10. Relative pronouns used in noun clauses are that, what, whatever, whoever,
whomever, and whichever.
(noun clause as subject) Whatever you offer will be appreciated.
(noun clause as direct He will befriend whoever he gets
object) acquainted with.
11. Look at the antecedent of who, that or which when used as subject to
decide whether the verb following should be singular or plural.
The paintingwhichis exhibited is the painter’s masterpiece.
Thefarmerswhoown orchards earn much from their harvest.
VERBS
• Denotes an action (e.g., read) or a state of being (e.g. know). ACTION VERBS are
dynamic. STATE OF BEING VERBS (or STATIVE VERBS) include the copula or linking
verbs, e.g. the be-verbs, remain, appear, and become.
The third person singular –s has the same allomorphs as the noun plural and
the noun possessive.
• Have tense and aspect qualities. Tense and aspect have to do with form. TENSE is
“the grammatical marking on verbs that usually indicates time reference relative
to either the time of speaking or the time at which some other situation was in
force” (Jacobs 1995). Time reference has to do with meaning. Events and
situations are located in time, perhaps to our speaking about them, perhaps while
we are speaking about them, or perhaps at some later time. English has three
tenses – present, past, and future. The present and the past tenses have
inflectional markings, while the future is marked by the inclusion of the modals
will or shall. Simply put, tense is a set of verb forms that indicate a particular
point in time or period of time in the past, present, or future.
ASPECT isa general name given to verb forms used to signify certain ways in
which an event is viewed or experienced. Aspect can view an event as
completed whole (simple), or whether or not it has occurred earlier (perfect
aspect) or is still in progress (progress).
Tense-Aspect Combinations
• To talk about a settled state of affairs which includes the present moment
He lives in Sagada now.
Our teacher is very competent and considerate. We like her very much.
• To say that an event occurred or that something was the case at a particular
time in the past.
The university officials flew into Jakartalast week to sign a
memorandum of agreement with a sister school.
• To talk about an activity that took place regularly or repeatedly in the past, but
which no longer occurs
We swam in the river a great deal in my childhood.
• To talk about general truths and to say what can be expected to happen if
a particular situation arises
An attack of dengue fever can keep a man off work for a few days.
He will earn nothing and he have trouble paying his hospital bills.
3. FUTURE PERFECT
To refer to something that has not happened yet, but will happen before a
particular time in the future.
By the time he graduates, his parents will already have left for
New Zealand
• To talk about a habitual action that takes place regularly, especially one which
is new or temporary
She’s spending a lot on clothes these days.
• To contrast a situation with an event which happened just after that situation
existed. We use the past continuous to describe the first event and the
simple past to describe the event which occurred after it.
We were standing at the main gate waiting to welcome the
guest speaker. He arrived 20 minutes later.
3. FUTURE PROGRESSIVE
• To say something will surely happen because arrangements have been made
They will be sending their students regularly to the University for
English proficiency enhancement.
PERFECT-PROGRESSIVE ASPECT
AUXILIARY/HELPING VERBS
2. AUXILIARY/HELPING VERBS
3. OPERATORS/OPERATOR VERBS
• The OPERATOR is a verb that has three main functions: 1) It precedes the
negative and combines with it when the negative is contracted to n’t; 2) It
is the verb that moves around the subject to the sentence initial position
in yes-no questions; and 3) It is also the verb that appears in the tag
phrases of interrogative sentences or tag questions.
My father will not approve your marriage proposal.
My father won’t approve your marriage proposal.
Will your father approve my marriage proposal?
Willyour father not approve my marriage
proposal? Won’t your father approve my marriage
proposal?
Your father will approve my marriage proposal, won’the?
• When a clause contains no verb eligible to be an operator, do
is introduced.
He attends the graduation ball tonight.
è He doesattend the graduation ball tonight.
è He doesnot attend the graduation ball tonight. è
Does he attend the graduation ball tonight?
è He attends the graduation ball tonight, doesn’t he?
• If there are two or more auxiliary verbs present in the VERB PHRASE, the
first auxiliary serves as the operator.
He has been reading the Obama autobiography. è
Hehas not been reading the Obama autobiography.
*He has been not reading the Obama
autobiography. è Has he been reading the Obama
autobiography.
He has been reading the Obama autobiography, hasn’t he?
1. Collective nouns may take either a singular or plural verb inflection depending on the
meaning.
• Conceived of as one entity – takes a singular
verb Our school teamhas won its games.
• Conceived of as more than one entity or refers to individual membership –
takes plural verb
Our school teamhave won all their games.
2. Some common and proper nouns ending in –s, including –ics nouns and
certain diseases are always conceived as single entity – take a plural verb.
The recent newsisexciting.
Mathematicsis repelling to many
students. Measlesisa contagious disease.
The United Statesis still a powerful country.
3. Titles of works even when plural in form are conceived of as single entitles.
The Ten Commandmentsis a beautiful movie.
The Syntax Filesis good reading for those in linguistics.
The song Greenfieldsbringsnostalgia to people of my generation.
4. Nouns occurring in sets of two take the singular when the noun pair is present
but take the plural when pair is absent.
That pair of Lee jeans is
expensive. My glassesaremissing.
6. A number normally takes the plural. The number takes the singular.
A number of parents are coming for the meeting.
The number of signatories is substantial to merit approval of the motion.
7. When we use a number and a plural noun to talk about two or more things, we
usually use a plural verb. We use a singular verb with ‘one’.
Seven daysmake up a week.
One solid evidence is enough to prove his dishonesty.
10. The quantifiers a lot (of), lots of, and plenty of take a singular verb if the subject
noun is noncount by plural verb if the subject head noun is plural.
A lot of sound viewswere advanced during the discussion. A
lot of nonsenseis evident from uninterested participants.
11. Traditional grammar states that when used as a subject, none (meaning not one)
is always singular regardless of what follows in a prepositional phrase.
None of the boysjoinsthe mountaineering
group. None of the riceis eaten at all.
12. Traditional grammar maintains that the antecedent of the relative pronoun is
the noun before.
Alice is one of the graduate students who havefinished her master’s degree in
a short period of time.
13. For correlatives either . . . or and neither . . . nor, traditional grammar argues for a
proximity rule, i.e., subject-verb agreement should occur with the subject noun nearest
to the verb.
Either my friend or my classmatesareexpected to help me with my
project. Neither my classmates nor my friendvolunteers to lend support.
14. A singular noun or pronoun should take a singular verb inflection regardless of what
else occurs between the subject and the verb.
Jimmy, along with his co-teachers, conducts a cleanliness campaign in
the barangay.
15. In questions, subjects don’t always come before verbs. Identify accurately
the subject before deciding on the proper verb to use.
Does your father usually go jogging?
What are the pages our teacher wants us to read?
VOICE
VOICE pertains to who or what serves as the subject in a clause. In the ACTIVE VOICE, the
subject of a clause is most often the agent, or doer, of some action. In the PASSIVE VOICE, the
subject of a clause is the receiver or undergoer of the action. The passive “defocuses” the
agent. (Shibitani 1985 in Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman 2001)
The passive voice is more limited than the active in that it requires only the
transitive verbs – verbs that take direct objects.
The passive morphology is be . . . –en, i.e., a form of the be verb + the past
participle. Usually in passive sentences the agent is not mentioned at all, referred to
as the AGENTLESS PASSIVE. If the agent is mentioned (= AGENTED PASSIVE), it appears in a
prepositional phrase marked by the preposition by.
3. Use the passive when the agent or the actor is so unimportant or is obvious
that you do not need to mention it.
Rica was born in Seychelles.
4. Use a passive verb if you want to hide the name of the person who is
responsible for an unpleasant decision or result.
An increase in tuition fees was proposed.
PHRASAL VERBS
These are verbs which consist of two or three words. They consist of:
1. intransitively
Why don’t you speak up?
2. transitively
Let’s cut down pollution to conserve our environment./
Let’s cut pollution down to conserve our environment.
Note that some phrasal verb may be separable. This is further explained below.
A two-word verb often has a one-word synonym, which is generally more formal.
Here are some examples:
Object
back it/the car up
blow it/the candle out
it/the balloon up
break them/the statistics down down
them/the negotiations off
bring it/the change about
it/the subject up
burn it/the building down
them/the papers up
clear them/the dishes away
it/the misunderstanding up
close it/the business down
draw it/the agreement up
fill it/a form in/out
it/the cup up
find it/the answer out
give it/this old bag way
it/eating candy up
it/the news out
hand it/the work in/out
keep them/expenses down
it/the radio on
leave it/the question out
let them/our friends in/out
lock them/the prisoners up
look them/our relatives in Manila up
make it/the handwriting out
it/a story up
mix it/food being prepared up
them/people up
pass it/the responsibility on
pay it/the money back
them/my enemies back
pick it/a new shirt out
point it/the problem out
ADJECTIVES
An adjective –
1. Restrictive/Nonrestrictive adjectives
RESTRICTIVEadjectives are necessary for defining which noun is being referred to
while NON-RESTRICTIVE adjectives merely add information without being essential for
identification.
A concrete house. (restrictive)
My uncle owns a house, built of concrete materials. (non-restrictive)
2. Polarity
POLARITY refers to positive and negative contrasts in a language.
Positive polarity Negative polarity
big small, little
old young
long short
good bad
fast slow
Adjectives with positive polarity are UNMARKED FORMS because they are used
more frequently in a given language, learned earlier by children, and used in
neutral contexts. Adjectives of negative polarity are MARKED. They are less
frequently used.
3. GRADABILITY
• Adjectives that can be compared are also called gradable adjectives. Comparative
forms (adjectives marked by -er, more, or less) show differences/contrasts
between two things or groups. Superlative forms (marked by –est, most, or least)
show differences in three or more things or groups.
When two or more adjectives are used in a structure, they usually occur in a particular
order or sequence as follows:
ADVERBS
ADVERBS modify or change the meaning of other words such as verbs, adjectives,
another adverb, or even a whole sentence.
Where we put only makes a big change in the meaning of a clause. To illustrate:
(no one else) 1. Onlyhe invited Alex to join the team this year.
(not ordered) (no 2. He onlyinvited Alex to join the team this year this year.
one but Alex) (to 3. He invited only Alex to join the team this year.
join, not to do 4. He invited Alex only to join the team this year.
anything else)
(recently as or at 5. He invited Alex to join the team only this year.
no other time)
Positions of Adverbials
While some adverbials are fixed in their positions in the sentence, others are movable.
They can occur sentence initially, medially, or finally.
Order of Adverbials
When two or more adverbials co-occur in final position in the same sentence,
ordering should be observed.
CONJUNCTIONS
Coordination
COORDINATION is the process of combining ideas. Two constituents of the same type can be
put together to produce another larger constituent of the same type. Traditional grammar
calls this process COMPOUNDING.
1. ELLIPSIS: Omission or elision of the first verb phrase in the second and adding the
word too or either (for UNINVERTED FORMS), and so or neither (for INVERTED
FORMS).
Affirmative forms
My friends like to read storybooks and I, too. (uninverted)
A horse runs fast, and so does an ostrich. (inverted)
Negative forms
Donna can’t climb a tree, and his little brother can’t, either. (uninverted)
Ducks can’t fly high, andneither can chickens. (inverted)
Other than and, simple coordinating conjunctions include: for, nor, but, or, yet, and so.
Note the following examples:
milk or chocolate
small but/yet terrible
He came late, so he missed the fun. (clausal)
They accepted the verdict, for they failed to counter the charges against them.
(clausal)
Other forms of correlative conjunctions are either . . . or, not only . . . but also,
and neither . . . nor. These pairs are used together
Either Tony orNico will top the test.
Anna is neither friendly nor generous.
Our teacher is not only competent but also very understanding.
A deeper and thorough study of each conjunction, however, reveals certain properties
beyond the given straightforward account. To illustrate, here are the other meaning
and uses of and.
3. As INFERENTIAL CONNECTIVE
Subordination
SUBORDINATION means putting less important ideas in less important grammatical
structures like dependent clauses. One means of subordination is SENTENCE
COMBININGorREDUCING.
Sentence combining
Reducing
è
Although late, Melissa topped the test
dependent clause independent clause
Subordinating Conjunctions
Relative Clauses
Another form of subordination involves the EMBEDDING of one clause within another. For
example:
The most common relative pronouns which mark relative clauses are: that, which, who,
whom, and whose. Their uses are presented earlier in the section on pronouns
PREPOSITIONS
Prepositions are notoriously difficult for ESL learners for several reasons.
3. Certain prepositions co-occur with verbs, adjectives, and nouns to form clusters.
to substitute for to be afraid of
infavorof awareness of
Meanings of Prepositions
1. Many prepositions prototypically deal with locating objects in space involving two
or more entities. One entity is for foregrounding, while the other serves as
background. The former is the figure and the latter is the landmark. In
at on in
by through
under
with
↕ ↕ ↕ overabout
from off out of
Adapted - Dirven 1993
• At, on, and in are the basic and most general place prepositions. At denotes
place as a point of reference, on denotes physical contact between the figure
and landmark, and in denotes the enclosure of the trajector in the landmark.
• From, off, and out of are source prepositions involving the notion of
separation from place.From denotes separation from a point of orientation,
off denotes separation from contact with line or surface, and out of,
separation from inside a landmark.
• By and with are proximity prepositions, which locate the figure in relation to
a point of orientation marked by the preposition at. By denotes the idea of
“connection” while with denotes both a point of orientation and the idea of
connection. In its spatial sense, with can occur only with animate nouns as
landmark.
• Through and about require the landmark to the seen as a surface or a volume
and are positioned in the diagram above next to in. Through structures space
as a tunnel or channel. About denotes spatial movement in any direction.
1. spatial proximity
2. time/degree approximation a house near/by the lake
3. telling time cost about/around
Php1,500.00 a quarter of/to
4. location along something ten
linear a quarter after/past ten
5. in a time period the houses on/along the river
6. temporal termination
7. location lower than something It occurred in/during 1901. studied from
8. location higher than something 8 until/till/to 5
9. location in/at the rear of below/beneath/under/underneath the
something bed above/over the piano
10. location adjacent behind/in back of the cabinet
Negation at the lexical or word level can simply use the negative affix. For example:
untidy untidily
impossible impossible
inadequate inadequately
illegally illegally
dishonest dishonestly
atypical atypically
Determining which affix to use is not always predictable. However, the choice of im -,
in-, il- or ir- is PHONOLOGICALLY CONDITIONED by the consonant which follows it, i.e., im- is
used if the following consonant is bilabial (b, p, m), il - goes with a stem beginning with
l, and ir- with a stem beginning with r. The prefix in- is the most common.
Nothing, nobody, and no one are indefinite pronouns while nowhere is an adverb.
Other negative items include never (negative adverb of frequency), nor (negative
coordinating conjunction, and neither . . . nor (negative correlative conjunction.
At the sentence level, not or its contraction n’t is the main NEGATOR. This applies to
different sentence types.
Placement of not
1. Not usually follows the be-verb, whether functions as a main verb (copula) or
an auxiliary/helping verb.
2. Other thanbe, not follows the auxiliary verb if one is present or the first auxiliary
(modal, phrasal modal, or have) if there are two or more.
I cannot swim well.
The principal mustnot have been joking when he said that.
We havenotbeenanalyzingthe data since we received them.
3. With other main verbs, a do-verb is introduced before negation can take place.
The child swims in the pool.è The child doesswim in the pool.
The child doesnot swim in the pool.
YES/NO QUESTIONS
Yes/no questions are formed by inverting the subject and the operator.
Yes/no questions may have a statement word order, i.e., the word order is uninverted.
This sentence, however, is likewise said with a rising intonation.
2
Lucy is your 3cousin3↑
2
She can speak 3fluently3↑
Yes/no questions usually take short answers using the operator. The operator is
underlined below.
{No, I can’t.
3. Are we supposed to attend? Yes, we are.
No, we aren’t
4. Have they eaten? Yes, they have.
No, it doesn’t.
If the sentence contains more than one auxiliary verb, the short answer may also
contain an auxiliary verb in addition to the operator.
Semantic problems may arise for many ESL learners who react to a negative yes/no
question in a literal manner in their language. This means that they agree or disagree
with the form of the yes/no question, thus causing miscommunication.
Don’t you feel sorry? Yes (I don’t feel sorry).
No (I feel sorry).
While neutral yes/no questions, as in the preceding cases, query on the whole state,
activity or event, this query can be more focused sometimes.
Does Álex plan a foreign trip with (or did someone else?)
Melly? (or did he only suggest?)
Does Alex plán a foreign trip with (or is it something else?)
Melly? (or is it with someone else?)
Does Alex plan a foreign tríp with Melly?
Does Alex plan a foreign trip with
Mélly?
The focused sentence element gets the primary stress as shown above.
Some and any can both occur with different question types depending on the meaning.
• However, some is used in questions that expect a positive response, e.g., an offer:
WH-QUESTIONS
WH-QUESTIONSare used to seek specific information so they are also referred to as
INFORMATION QUESTIONS. Except for how, these words begin with wh- : who, whose,
whom, what, which, where, when, why, and how.
Liza bought a beautiful house for her parents before she went to Canada.
Forming Wh-Questions
If who, what, or which is the subject of the sentence, it is followed by the normal word
order of a statement.
Whom/who, what and which as objects form questions by putting the wh-words first,
and do, does, or did next.
A modal (e.g., can) cannot be replaced by do, does, or did. The do-verb replaces
the main verb.